WHERE CAN I FIND IT?

In campaigns that are targeted on Google Search, each keyword has a Quality Score. But it is hidden by default. Here's how to show it:

Click the "Keywords" tab in your Adwords account.

Click "Columns" then "Customize columns".

In the section that opens up, choose "Attributes".

Click on the "Add" link in the Quality Score row.

Click "Apply" to save. You should now have a QS column in your data.

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WHAT ARE THE FACTORS INFLUENCING IT?

External factors are the things that happen on your website. Internal factors are what goes on in your Adwords account.

1.

EXTERNAL FACTORS LANDING PAGE QUALITY & Relevance

There are two sides to a good landing page: quality and relevance. "Quality" means that users have a great experience when they reach your website. "Relevance" means they find what was promised in the ad.

Account's performance (in terms of CTR) in the geographical region where the ad will be shown.

When there's no history in your account, Google will use other advertisers' historical performance on specific keywords to evaluate what Quality Score you should be granted. It is up to you to exceed performance.

Quality score for Search Partners works the same way as Google.com. Although performance on these sites varies considerably from performance on Google Seach, it has NO impact on quality scores of your Google Search campaigns. It usually is good practice to separate your Google Search campaigns from Search Partners campaigns. Learn how.

Landing page quality plays an on/off swith role in the display network campaigns as well.

Quality score for display network campaigns is not visible anywhere in the AdWords interface.

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WHAT DO THENUMBERS MEAN?

A 7/10 Quality Score is the recommended number and is sufficient. Going above 7 is great but not always achievable and may not be worth the effort. Anything below 7 is a sign that something is wrong and should be worked on.

1
Dead

2
Sick

3

4
Weak

5

6

7
Good

8
Excellent

9

10

Dead
If you get a 1/10, you're in trouble. Google has or is about to ban your website. You'll hardly get any traffic and your costs will be exorbitant.

Sick
At 2/10 and 3/10, your keywords are suffering. You're not getting all the traffic you could and you'll be charged very high prices for such bad scores. To go from 2 or 3 to 7/10 will require quite some expertise.

Weak
These keywords need your attention and getting them above 7 should be accomplished without much trouble. Simply follow the flow chart at the bottom of this page. You'll most likely need to regroup your ad groups and write better ads.

Good
You've accomplished what you needed in terms of quality. Google likes what you're doing and you're not being penalized in terms of traffic or costs.

Excellent
The holy grail. At this point, you've surpassed Google's expectations and your performance is above average. Your costs are being discounted and your ads are appearing in prominent positions and more frequently.

The jump from 7/10 to anything above is not linear and sometimes doesn't make sense. Keywords often go from 7/10 immediately to 10/10 with no transition to 8 and 9.

HOW DO I INCREASEMY QUALITY SCORES?

Follow the flow chart.

The following will make sense if you have a Tenscores account. You can also download it in PDF format.